New Tampines EC Rivelle Starts From $1.588M — More Than 8,000 Visit Preview

Tampines Street 95 in District 18, over its initial weekend preview from Friday March 6 to Sunday March 8.

Developed by Sim Lian Group, Rivelle is a 572-unit development featuring 11 residential blocks of 12- to 14-stories, with a mix of three- to five-bedroom units. The project has a basement carpark with space for 462 parking lots.

Rivelle will be open to preview for another weekend, before the sales booking commences on Saturday, March 21.

This is the second EC to hit the market this year. In January, Coastal Cabana, a 748-unit EC on Jalan Loyang Besar in District 17, launched for sale over the Jan 17-18 weekend. The project moved 498 units (67%) and set an average selling price of $1,734 psf.

Buyers in the East will also have another option for them to consider when Pinery Residences, a 588-unit condominium on Tampines Street 94 launches this month. The project is an integrated development that is directly linked to Tampines West MRT station on the Downtown Line, and a retail podium.

Sim Lian already has some experience developing a new EC project in Tampines. Last March, it launched Aurelle, a 760-unit EC on Tampines Street 62 in District 18.

During its initial weekend sales, Sim Lian sold 682 units (90%) of the total units at Aurelle, and set a benchmark price for a new EC in the area of $1,766 psf. The remarkable sales result during the first launch weekend saw all of the four- and five-bedroom units sell out, and only about 16% of the three-bedroom units remaining.

But the entire project was sold out the following month when sales for second-timer families opened. It took roughly an hour for all unsold units to get snapped up.

Under the current HDB regulations, developers can allocate only 30% of EC units to second-timers — that is, buyers who have previously purchased a subsidised HDB flat, received a CPF Housing Grant for a resale flat, or owned an EC bought directly from a developer.

Demand for EC projects has been consistently strong in recent years, and this is often attributed to the twin factors of the scarcity of new EC projects entering the market each year and relative to the overwhelming demand in the market.

There are five new EC projects that will be launch-ready this year, and this includes Coastal Cabana and Rivelle, leaving about three more new EC projects that aspiring buyers can look forward to.

It has been a long time since hopeful EC buyers have had this much choice in a single year. While the sales performance of Coastal Cabana reflected the strong underlying demand for EC projects among upgraders and homebuyers, the initial sales result falls short of what we have come to expect, especially after the near sell-out performance we saw at Aurelle.

For Rivelle, we will be watching to see if some upgraders and homebuyers wait for the preview of Pinery Residences next door before they submit an application for a unit at Rivelle. There will certainly be some buyers who might see Pinery as a more appealing option, given its closer proximity to Tampines MRT station and convenience of having a retail podium.

But buyers shouldn’t wait too long since we are also starting to see land prices inch up at a very noticeable pace, and this includes EC sites.

For example, the recent sale of an EC site at Woodlands Drive 17 in January saw Sim Lian put in the winning bid of $484 million for the 290,412 sq ft site. This translates to a land rate of $794 psf per plot ratio (ppr) – a new record land price for an EC site.

Market watchers like PropNex estimate that the new development on that site could see its starting prices from approximately $1,850 psf when it goes on sale next year.

With all this unfolding, EC buyers in the East will be faced with a tough choice this month, against this backdrop of two new projects entering the market this month as well as the expectation that rising land prices will likely see higher prices for new ECs and condominiums in 2027.